* Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez committed what could amount to political suicide on 60 Minutes last night. The program was about the large number of false confessions in Chicago - highest in the nation. Have a look…

Byron Pitts: (Alvarez) defends the actions of the police in these two cases.

Alvarez: We have not uncovered any evidence of any misconduct by the police officers or the State’s Attorneys that took the statements in these cases.

Narration: Alvarez still believes the confession Terrill Swift gave in the Nina Glover case. Despite the fact there was no DNA evidence linking him or the others to the crime.

Byron Pitts: Did you find any of the boys’ DNA on the victim?

Anita Alvarez: No, we didn’t.

Byron Pitts: Did you find any of their DNA in the basement of the house?

Anita Alvarez: No.

Byron Pitts: How do you explain that the boys would say they raped a woman, and there not be any DNA evidence? Doesn’t that strike you as odd?

Anita Alvarez: Well, we would love to have DNA on everything. And every piece of evidence that we have, in every crime. But it doesn’t necessarily occur.

Narration: Last year, the (New York-based) Innocence Project retested the one DNA sample that was recovered inside the victim Nina Glover. It was submitted to the National DNA Database and a match was made to Johnny Douglas, a serial rapist and convicted killer, who is now deceased. But the new discovery did not change Anita Alvarez’s mind.

Byron Pitts: You find out years later that, in fact, the DNA found inside the victim’s body belonged to Johnny Douglas. And Johnny Douglas is a convicted serial rapist and murderer. That doesn’t tell you that he most likely is the person who killed this woman?

Anita Alvarez: No. It doesn’t. Is he a bad guy? Absolutely, he is. Absolutely. But, can we prove, just by someone’s bad background, that they committed this particular crime? It takes much more than that….

Narration: In the case of Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr and James Harden, DNA found inside the 14-year-old victim Catteresa Matthews was also retested, and a match was made to Willie Randolph, a 34-year-old convicted rapist, with 39 arrests. (Innocence Project Defense attorney) Peter Neufeld says prosecutors rejected the DNA evidence and instead came up with an unusual theory to explain it all away.

Peter Neufeld: They suggest perhaps after the kids killed her this man wandered by and committed an act of necrophilia.

Byron Pitts: Necrophilia. A lot of our viewers won’t know what that means.

Peter Neufeld: Having sex with a dead person.

Anita Alvarez: It’s possible. We have seen cases like that.

Byron Pitts: Possible?

Anita Alvarez: It is. We’ve seen it in other cases.

Byron Pitts: It’s possible that this convicted rapist, wandered past an open field, and had sex with a 14-year-old girl who was dead?

Anita Alvarez: Well, there’s all kinds of possibilities out there, and what I’m saying is that I don’t know what happened.

Just days after Alvarez was embarrassed by the grand jury indictment in the Koschmann case comes this fresh evidence that she’s not up to her job. She just doesn’t know what happened? And this is the woman we expect to represent the interests of justice in Cook County?

Anita was probably just trying to avoid making any admissions that would increase the County’s civil liability, but boy was that appallingly bad judgment.

Unless I missed it, the segment didn’t mention that Milan and Alvarez had run against each other in the primary. Milan wasn’t a very good choice for State’s Attorney, either, but at least he’s forthrightly admitted his error.

In her primary run, Anita showed some prospect of exercising judgment that was independent of the Daley/Machine. She’s been a tremendous disappointment in the office.

It would be great if one of the better former federal prosecutors ran next time. But they’d have to raise a lot of money — a lot of money — to have a chance to win.

I think Alvarez doesn’t understand the meaning of the phrase “justice is blind.”

It’s hard to believe someone could go on “60 Minutes” and yammer such gibberish, but there it is.

Thank goodness for the Innocence Project, the Center on Wrongful Convictions, and folks like Mary Brigid Kenney, who resigned from the Illinois Attorney General’s office in protest over it’s attempts to send an obviously innocent man to a date with a lethal injection.

We owe them all a great deal. Too bad we didn’t come through last month when we re-elected Alvarez.

I realized after watching this last night that I (and I suspect many others, too) live in a constant state of cognitive dissonance with respect to feelings of love, loyalty, pride and protectiveness– while at the same time being almost continually appalled and disappointed over the operation and governance of Chicago and Cook County. It’s stressful.

It is amazing how many people commenting here are clueless as to the election of the Cook County State’s Attorney.

The GOP DID nominate a competent alternative.

Lori Yokoyama would have made a fine State’s Attorney.

The problem is that so many in the GOP are absolutely miserable at politics. There was no Cook County GOP organization to help her out. People with money blew it on the congressional races rather than on that race. All that money given to back Joe Walsh was thrown away. It could have made a big difference in this race.

The GOP has written off Cook County. We don’t have a two party system and this is what happens.

no, the piece did not state that Milan, the Devine supported candidate, ran against Alvarez. It should have stated that. Milan has a huge ax to grind. the SAO was divided into two camps for that election, Alvarez won, Milan’s people are still quite wounded and angry. Milan admitted his errors. Alvarez was previously in charge of units that included those that investigate police misconduct and now she takes the middle ground not attacking police work. the comments from Alvarez may sound implausible, but there’s lots about cases that goes unsaid. including previous records of people arrested.

It would be great if she would take the high road and resign. She has kids so what about walking away so she can show them a good example of what you do when you make multiple large mistakes. There is a cost to making errors of this magnitude and leaving is the price you pay instead of making the State of IL look like we are full of idiots again. Perhaps if one politican, who looked like an idiot on TV would do it, others would take note and not stay just because they can stay and win.

Skeeter, I agree with you that Lori Yokoyama was a fine candidate. She is intelligent, creative and personable. Hopefully she runs for office again.

It looked like the Cook County GOP was building some momentunm there for a time, but they seem to be sliding backwards the past year or two.

In fairness, however, some additional challenges stand out from that race.

The Tribune, Daily Herald and many others noted her lack of qualifications for this particular position. As the Daily Herald put it “her predominantly civil background and complete lack of experience with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office leave her ill-prepared for a role of this magnitude.”

That certainly did not help her case.

2012 campaign finance records also indicate she raised just under $10,000 through the most recent filings of September 30.

It seems unrealistic to complain about resources and support from others if one fails to lead the way.

If a candidate is not initially building momentum on their own, the city, county, state or even national party isn’t likely to step in and dedicate scarce resources to magically doing it for them.

It’s true there were two camps in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in the 2008 election. That’s not so true anymore. Anita’s people pretty much cleared out anyone associated with Milan. Those people moved on or lost their jobs.

Anita looked bad last night. Maybe she can’t admit mistakes were made because of liability issues. At least Milan told the truth. He didn’t look to me like a man who relished being interviewed by 60 Minutes. Why Anita granted such an interview is questionable.

Balanced — You only get credit for standing by your principles if you’re right.

The woods are full of people who have proudly stood by principles of racism, homophobia, xenophobia, you name it. And in years past, there were elected officials who proudly stood up against emancipation, integration, women’s suffrage — all kinds of things that we now consider fundamental human rights.

History has not been kind to the people who “stick to their principles” in the face of historical tides toward justice.

I think that would be true in many races.
However, when the party has not held any County-wide office in about 20 years (O’Grady? Or is there somebody more recent?) the candidate is taking one for the team just be running.

Getting on the ballot is the contribution. I would hope the party could step in and do things like get her a fundraiser and a campaign team. As a first time candidate, I wouldn’t expect her to do these things for herself.

Would it be nice to have somebody step up for the GOP with team in place? Yeah, that would be awesome. Given the track record, it is also somewhat unrealistic. A party needs to provide that support. Surely, there must be grown ups in the party who can direct a candidate to qualified campaign staff and consultants.

Amalia has it right…I will add that the powers that be never thought Alvarez had a chance…she performed very well in candidates forums and with the history of dubious and severe judgements against minorities, she was seen as someone who could bring a modicum of fairness to this growing constituency in Cook County…she has appointed some intersting characters to assist her in her duties that are not the usual suspects, further infuriating the boys club…

After
- developing and standing by the “necrophilia” excuse
- requesting the grades of those Northwestern students
- repeatedly and deliberately burying the Koschman case
- jailing citizens for recording the police in public
- hitting an 81 year old homeowner with weapons charges after shooting a 19 year old burglar in the leg
- failing to use a reasonable approach in treating Senator Trotter and a 65 year old flight attendant as hardened criminals
- generally neglecting to prosecute individuals in a measured, logical manner

what could she possibly have in store for the citizens as an encore in 2013? A crackdown on jaywalking?

Strange priorities - especially when the murder in her backyard is going through the roof.

After reading some of the comments, I was ready to dump all over Alvarez.

After viewing the tape, it is apparent to me that she was trying to avoid saying anything that could adversely impact a potential civil action. These actions occurred before her time in office. Her mistake was talking to 60 minutes at all.

For all the folks who have the ‘could adversely effect a civil action’ view….

Really,
That putting out some BS, random dude with necrophilia just happened to be wondering by..

Lots of stuff is plausible in the context of a lifetime movie, but in real life, not so much.

What I wanted to hear and what I want to think everyone wanted to hear was…

“You know we are taking a look at why we has so many juvenile false confessions in Cook County, even one undermines our system and we are looking at ways, and have implemented some already that are beginning to try and eliminate these situations’

Anita Alvarez is a Chicago Machine hack. She’s doing her job to project the Machine. Cook County is like some banana republic . That’s what the voters want. Alvarez’s office is a patronage operation. What’s creepy is she has a law license and the 60 minute piece shows she’s not interested in defending basic civil rights. Click on the link down below for her utter contempt for self-defense.http://nalert.blogspot.com/2012/03/did-daley-nephew-vanecko-confess-to.html

Anita Alverez, Lisa Madigan, and other AG’s are notorious for defending wrongdoing in agencies as a protection from liability and civil action. The problem is that by doing so, they perpetuate the culture of entitlement by wrongdoers on our government payrolls. There’s got to be a better way than sacrificing their integrity and the public trust by defending the bad guys.

This culture of wrongdoing compromises the entire organization. Ethical employees throughout these agencies either 1)resign in protest or 2) are forced out.

Face it, we voters made a big mistake on Alvarez. Wasn’t our first and certainly won’t be our last. Just sucks we’re stuck with her for four more years. FWIW, I voted for Yokoyama despite her having no chance to win.

While Alvarez may be trying to protect her office from liability, it does nothing for her credibility in protecting her office or as an elected official to present a story with literally zero evidence whatsoever as an alternative theory. Even the wrongful convictions had more evidence than that, albeit false evidence. The necrophilia theory she presented is literally based on nothing. Her office dreamed it up. It’s as plausible and has as much evidence for it as Tolkien’s worlds before the “dominion of men.” Maybe that’s humanity’s creation story!

If she was a drinking buddy at the bar we would all be calling her a bs-er. However, because she deals in the realm of crime and justice, some are giving her a pass. She’s an incompetent embarrassment and a liar.

I’ve had had a particularly low opinion of Anita Alvarez since I saw her on the campaign trail running in the Dem primary.

Alvarez’ arrogance was total. She could not deal with information that there might be anything wrong with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. She would just dismiss questions by saying, “You must have your facts wrong.”

I inferred if she wasn’t willing to say, “I’ll look into that,” while campaigning she certainly wasn’t going to push for improvement when elected.

But even with my particularly low opinion of Alvarez, I was surprised at her statements in this interview.

Even after the individuals had been exonerated, she’s saying they either might or probably be guilty because “you never know.”

Look, the criminal system exists to create certainty, even when certainty is impossible to attain through other methods.

If one were to take Alvarez’s perspective into the jury room, there would be no convictions. After all, you never know. The accused might have been set-up by time travelers from the future.

Anita Alvarez is an intellectual lightweight who has gotten ahead by conforming herself to the culture of he Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. And the dominant culture is stupid, arrogant and unwilling to admit mistakes.

But the ASAs are mostly politically connected enough that they can be screw-ups as attorneys and prosecutors and still move up in their careers.

The GOP wasted a lot of money on the Fire Madigan charade. They should have supported a single candidate and made it a cause. To the Daily Herald, it might be a very good thing to find someone “without” experience in the State’s Attorney’s office. The Tribune bears a good deal of the blame in this also. For all of the candidates who they were able to write a backhanded endorsement and those who didn’t get endorsed but, at least, got good print - this is the the one they missed. Pity.

As a former public defender in Cook County I found the politics of this story very interesting. Milan and Alvarez were rivals throughout their long careers in the ranks of the State’s Attorney’s Office. For 60 Minutes not to mention that they ran against each other is lousy journalism.

I’m not trying to defend Alvarez, but to call her a machine hack or Daley tool is way off the mark. She won the primary four years ago with a very thin plurality because she was the only woman and only hispanic in a very crowded field. She had virtually no organizational support.

And she didn’t botched the handling of these cases because she’s an in-over-her-head politician. In fact, you could argue she’s not being political enough because the “political” move would have been to walk away from these cases, and appoint a special prosecutor for the Kotchman caper as well. Her real problem is she thinks like an in-the-trenches prosecutor who grew up in the hyper-adversarial Cook County criminal courts culture, one that values winning over actually administering justice. For too many prosecutors, working for the Cook County State’s Atty means you never have to say your sorry. Milan, to his credit, seems to have gotten over it. Maybe that humility comes from losing the primary four years ago by a wide margin.

This story could just as easily been run about the former Lake County State’s Attorney and Assistant State’s Attorney who expressed equally absurd theories to try to save embarrassing prosecutions that resulted in exhonorations. She demonstrated the same tunnel vision that the cops do that lead to them bullying innocents into false confessions.

== I must confess, I agreed with her. She is firm and stands by her convictions. ==

Like former ASA Bob Milan, most of us have learned much more about false confessions in recent years.

When new DNA evidence was produced pointing away from the Englewood Four, a reasonable person might adjust her opinion accordingly, instead of rigidly doubling down. Stiff-necked dogmatism isn’t a virtue when it’s hyperdefensive and ignores the evidence.

Loop Lady is spot on about the boys club that remains infuriated about Anita’s win. while it is true, Clear the Air, that many high ranking Milan supporters left or were shown the door, lower ranking folks remain. this was also true to pave the Devine return with minions who were devious. there is a vicious chorus that regards the chair as male, and not minority and defending law enforcement. ironic, as Anita’s comments are actually middle ground.

This will shape up to quite a week for Alverez. I did not vote for her this time–but–it is stunning when you add up the return on our justice invesment–we are owed a great deal more than we’re receiving. And I’d say with some few exceptions–that seems to be a state-wide situation.

“But the ASAs are mostly politically connected enough that they can be screw-ups as attorneys and prosecutors and still move up in their careers.”
What exactly is your basis for this? 800 attorney’s are politically connected? Come on Carl, you can be angry at the elected official, stop dumping on the rank and file. Can we fairly dump on Sen Trotter’s staff? That seems to be sour grapes, friend.

Phil:
One has to laugh at your comment “I’m not trying to defend Alvarez, but to call her a machine hack or Daley tool is way off the mark. ” She had John Daley’s support and Eddie Burke’s in the primary. So, who are you trying to fool? She was in that office when Burge could have been prosecuted. How many felony convictions on Chicago Mob members and associates has the Cook County States Attorney’s Office gotten since Alvarez began working there???? Here no evil, see no evil: that’s Anita Alvarez. No wonder the Chicago Mob was so effective all those years.

I have actually interviewed Alvarez on the subject of DNA and and DNA is just one piece of the puzzle. There can be mitigating factors whether it is present or absent. It is not an end all in every circumstance by any means.
As someone who who has chaired community policing meetings for 17 years, I have seen too many people who beliefs on the subject of DNA, the police and the oourts are the direct result of watching one of the Law & Order or CSI shows.
I’ll stand with Alvarez here, she was being honest in a way that most politicians are incapable & unwilling.

So, Avy, based on all of your community policing meetings and your personal DNA interview with Anita, you’ve decided to sign onto the “rapist/murderer stumbles into windfall necrophilia opportunity” theory?

You believe windfall necrophilia is a sensible *alternative* to wild tv show plots?

And you think it’s HONEST for Anita to refuse to admit she doesn’t have a case?

When DNA matches the defendant, prosecutors tout that evidence as highly accurate and pertinent. When it doesn’t match the defendant, they come up with highly implausible theories. They want to have it both ways. And you enable that double standard.

–(Can we start a Democrats for Lori group? And a Greens for Lori group? And a Please, Anyone But Anita Alvarez for Lori group?–

It would probably be easier to steal the Cook County GOPs hard-list. I hear it’s on a Bennigan’s bar napkin in Ty Fahner’s Sunday pants.

Simple caper. Lights out, nobody home.

To those who might not have followed my tinhat conspiracies over the years, I blame Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, John Wilkes Booth, and Yosemite Sam for the fact that the Illinois GOP has defied all logic, reason and arithmetic and abandoned the Republicans and Reagan Democrats of Cook County.

Steve Bartin, feel free to laugh all you want at the truth, but Alvarez was most certainly not the organization candidate, Tom Allen was. Look at the numbers ward by ward and township by township. She won just about every ward where at least a third of the population is Latino (including 11 and 14.) That had nothing to do with the committeemen you mentioned and everything to do with the ethnic make-up of the wards. And she was the second choice in a bunch of other areas, mostly because she was the only woman in the race.

I’m not trying to fool anyone….read the rest of my post, not exactly a spirited defense of Alvarez! I’m trying to offer some balance to the hyperbole offered by you and others on this thread. The necorphelia arguement is a joke and she deserves the crap she’s catching on it, but it needs to be pointed out that she didn’t exactly get a fair shake from 60 Minutes. The fact they didn’t mention Milan is a bitter political rival of her borders on journalistic malpractice. They also never made it clear that she didn’t prosecute the case.

Feel free to kick her around, I’m not saying she doesn’t deserve it. Let’s just not ignore the facts.

I have a simple solution to the false confession issue in Chicago/Cook County. Require all interogations to be recorded, both sound & video. Then if the individual is charged, the entire interogation recording should be available to the defense through discovery, and available to use as evidence for a false confession defense. If the full recording is for any reason not available then the confession should not be allowed as evidence.